Meteor-Blog 25. July 2008: Rendezvous at the caboose

In today's blog chief scientist Antje Boetius introduces her work and duties being the cruise leader - and the most important man aboard: the ship's cook!

Planetearth Blog

Does the
biodiversity of deep-sea organisms play a role for the climate on Planet Earth?
Questions all about marine research will be answered directly aboard of the
German research vessel Meteor by cruise leader Prof. Antje Boetius and her
crew. In cooperation with the geoportal planeterde.de from 17.07.08 to 24.08.08
they contribute a Science-Blog of
METEOR expedition M76/3 GUINECO – MARUM research of fluid and gas seeps on the
Westafrican continental margin. Technical highlight of the cruise is the
remote-controlled under water robot QUEST4000 by MARUM that will be deployed
for taking fauna and sediments samples and conduction of in situ experiments. Go on a dive down to places no other human
being has ever seen before: explore the fascinating deep-sea fauna and watch
the scientists’ work at gas and fluid seeps deep down on the ocean bottom.

Expedition
M76/3b is a collaboration of MARUM – Center for Marine Environmental Sciences
at Bremen University
and its associated institutes MPI and AWI as well as the French research
institute IFREMER and the University
of Paris.

More informationen of Meteor-Blog and expedition M76/3B

25. July
2008 (Author: Antje Boetius)

“My name is Antje Boetius and I am the
chief scientist of the expedition leg M76/3b. I am a professor at the Jacobs University
Bremen and
the leader of the working group “Microbial habitats” at the Max-Planck-Institute
for Marine Microbiology. This is my 38th expedition, and the 7th
as chief scientist. Chief scientists have to plan the research with all
scientists on board and its realization with the captain and his crew. They
have to inform all participants, try to fulfill their wishes and keep them busy
with work :-). Also, chief scientists need to
react quickly to unforeseen changes in the working plan, and come up with
alternative plans – so basically they do the time management on board.

I really
like research at sea, to me it is always an adventure how many different people
representing a wide range of age groups, expertises and nationalities can work
together for a common goal – to explore and understand the ocean. Most of all I
like to work with deep water robots. They allow you to work directly at the
seafloor and to see details as if you would walk through your garden at home.
Currently, the ROV QUEST is diving again after some repairs – we hope that we
will have a successful dive to interesting accumulations of a special symbiotic
clam inhabiting the gas seeps of the deep African margin.”

Rendezvous at the caboose

Today’s Blog is not so much about research,
but about another member of the ship’s crew. Some say he is the most important
man on board: the ship’s cook! After tonight’s dinner offering the famous
METEOR-Greek-Dish Antje Boetius had a conversation with Franz Grün, the cook of
the METEOR.

Picture 1: Franz Grün and Antje Boetius in
conversation

Franz,
since when do you sail?

I work at sea since 1968 (40 years!), but I was on land for about
ten years within that period. I worked for the Norddeutsche Lloyd, Balken
Reederei, Urag, Hansa, RF and now Laeisz.

Where
are you from, and how did you get to be a seafarer?

I come from Roth, close by Nürnberg, and it
was my curiosity and hunger for adventure which brought me to work at sea. In
my village there were a few sailors, and it was basically them who introduced
me to the idea of being a seaman. Of course my parents were not too happy about
this.

Where
did you learn to cook?First I learned the profession of a butcher, and
then I worked as a cook’s apprentice on board. I learned cooking on board of
freighters, before I became a ship’s cook on research vessels. This is the
typical career for a ship’s cook. My first ship as a cook was the research
vessel SONNE.

And
when you are at home, do you cook too?

Well, yes, but my wife is not always happy
with it and it is often too much (laughs).
So often she cooks, we rarely go out for dinner.

For
the many cruises you did, what is your favorite region?

Anything tropical, especially South
America, and South Asia. I like it best when
it is warm outside.

What
abilities does one need to become a ship’s cook, and would you do it again if
you had another choice?

You need to be reliable, highly organized
and quite farsighted, and you need to be able to work independently. And you
should be able to enjoy life on board. If I would do it again? I do not know, I
grew into his job without much planning, but maybe I would not do it again. It
is really difficult for family and especially wives to handle these long times
of absences, and you cannot blame them for it.

Why
are there no female ship’s cooks?

Well, there are some, for example on the
Antarctic station. But in our company we do not have female ship cooks, I don’t
think they apply for this post.

Have
you ever had a real disaster in the kitchen, and would you share the story?

I have made mistakes, but never a big one (smiles). There was always food on the
table, so - no, no real disaster. Of course a ship’s cook knows some tricks to
avoid disasters.

Is it
true that when there is too much salt in the food, the cook is in love?

I guess not, because as often as there is
too much salt in the food, you cannot be in love (laughs). There are several sayings that are not really true. For
example, one says when one finds a laurel leave in the food, you must kiss the
cook, but no one ever kissed me for the laurel.

Ok
Franzl, we will see what happens if you cook some laurel soup tomorrow :-). Thank you so much for the conversation!